TIMES are certainly tough if you're desperate enough to be looking for second-hand teeth.

But believe it or not, some people think there is a market out there.

Passers-by do a double take when they stroll past a shop and see a jar containing six sets of old dentures with the sign, "Secondhand teeth for sale".

Dental technician Anthony O'Halloran said he helping people beat the recession blues with his window display at the Dental Laboratory on John Street in Limerick.

"I'm trying to make the world smile," he said. "I don't actually sell them. It is a joke but the reaction I've got since I put the jar in the window a year ago is incredible. People just burst out laughing."

He said he got the dentures two years ago. "This guy came into me with the teeth in a bag. His wife was after dying and he was trying to earn an extra few quid by looking to sell her six sets of teeth.

"He was genuinely under the impression you could sell them. He said 'the wife is gone but her teeth are good'. I said to him, 'she must have been a very discontented woman with six sets of teeth'.

"I said I'd put them in a jar and let him know if anyone bought them."

Mr O'Halloran, who makes dentures, crowns and bridges as well as other orthodontic appliances, had one customer enquiring about buying the dentures but he had to point out it was a joke.

The dental technician appeared on the Ray D'Arcy Show yesterday after a stunned listener rang about the teeth for sale.